Month: October 2007

I went to the mall this weekend to buy Dead Rising, to use in my next GiR, which will be the now-annual Creepy, Geeky Games feature, and ended up with fodder for this week’s column while I was there:

Geek in Review: Carded
My wife and I are both in our mid-thirties. We have two kids, one of
whom is in college, but we must look young, because we still get carded
in restaurants, bars, and even at the market. It happens so frequently,
we’ve made it into a contest, to see who can get carded most often, and
in the most unlikely circumstances.

This last weekend, I pulled ahead in our contest, when I was carded at the mall, while attempting to buy a video game.

“Wait.” I said to the cashier. “You’re carding me for a video game?”

“Yeah,” he said, “It’s an M-rated game. I have to.”

“I’m 35,” I said. “This is hilarious.”

“I’m sorry, but my manager is standing right there, so . . .” he said.

“Well, I don’t want to be a dick, and I don’t want to get you into any
trouble.” I said. I reached into my wallet and handed him my ID. “But
isn’t this sort of lame?”

The manager nodded. “It’s the stupidest thing in the world, and it’s all because of the Grand Theft Auto thing.”

I submitted my story to Propeller, if you think it’s worth a vote.